Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill

Lord Bishop of Chester Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Chester (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their warm welcome, although I confess that sustainable aviation fuel was not a subject that I imagined I would be addressing when various noble Lords have given me advice about maiden speeches. I am grateful for their wisdom, warmth and welcome, and especially that of the doorkeepers and staff of this House. It seems that I should have taken them rather more literally when they said I would be working with high-flyers, and rather less literally when they pointed out that not everything was rocket science.

I speak as one born almost two and a half thousand miles from where we sit. Indeed, the first serious journey of my life was by air, back here to the UK. I am also a father and, like the rest of this noble House, entrusted with passing on entire to the next generation this good earth. Sustainability matters: the good Lord provided us with many things, but a spare planet was not among them, at least in this age. It is this balance of pragmatisms which means that I speak largely in support of the Bill. We need to be real about air travel being vital to modern life. It builds community, enables encounter and crosses divides.

My diocese of Chester serves communities in two nations and 23 local authorities. It spans urban and rural, wealth and extreme poverty. We gaze at the universe from Jodrell Bank. We support half of the Mersey’s industrial life. We rejoice in our schools and in Chester University, and we cherish our world-renowned zoo. Indeed, we also have Warrington, which, according to the i Paper, may be Britain’s hardest-working town—who knew? All are part of the life of the diocese, from the newish migrant to the most established among the Cheshire set, from those who take penalties on the sporting field to those who serve a very different type of penalty. We are linked to the world both by Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which is in the diocese of Liverpool just across the River Mersey, and Manchester Airport, where one actually lands in the diocese of Chester but disembarks in the diocese of Manchester.

To repeat myself, the diocese of Chester touches two nations. I serve a border people, just as I did in my former see of Berwick-upon-Tweed. In Chester, we have several parishes which are all or partly in Wales. My Lords—or, as I should say, “fy Arglwyddi”—“Esgob Caer ydw i a ’dw i’n dysgu tipyn bach o Cymraeg”. I apologise for my lamentable Welsh accent. I am learning a little Welsh, partly because I carried on with Duolingo long after lockdown but, much more importantly, because communication is a vital gift for those of us who nurture and curate community. In communication, we need to learn to speak and to listen. This is almost always done in person and directly. Indeed, I argue that one of our primary vocations in this noble House is to be with and to listen, for few disciplines are more vital in the search for wisdom—the search I so often witness in your Lordships’ House. The question for me is not so much how we can be great again, but how we can be kindly present. Greatness is great, but grace is greater.

Air travel does more than build community; it enables partnership and commerce. It is a vital part of the defence of our nation, as I witnessed when offering chaplaincy to our Armed Forces. It is the backbone of much international aid provision, and it enables care for people and the planet. Chester Zoo, for example, serves ecosystems around this world. The relative ease of transport is one factor in this. My experience working in the university sector showed just how much journeys matter in the service of education.

Air travel is vital and is here to stay, but its environmental impact must be addressed. This means that net zero matters, but it is not the only sustainability consideration. Mike Berners-Lee points out, when ostensibly discussing the environmental impact of bananas, that the problem is not only emissions but where they are released. Sustainable fuel is far from carbon neutral. Although it shortens the life cycle of released carbon in the sense that it releases carbon which has only recently been captured, it also moves that carbon into the upper parts of the atmosphere, where it is most harmful.

I welcome the Bill’s creation of an economic framework in which SAF becomes a viable investment. I welcome the balancing of the use between investment by directing costs towards those who make use of the service—in effect, taxing flying to enable more sustainable flight seems very sensible. By itself, though, the Bill does not do nearly enough. The move it encourages from first- to second- and then, vitally, to third-generation SAF is essential. HyNet, in which the University of Chester is a partner, and which makes use of the geology and industrial infrastructure in the north-west, is one other expression of this kind of investment. The production of green hydrogen, which combines captured carbon with sustainably electrolysed hydrogen, really is the holy grail here—let any budding and noble theologians note that I do not use that term in a technical sense

Alongside the Bill, we must invest in rail and in environmental road transport if we are to progress to sustainability. It cannot be right that more than half my return trains from this place to my home in Chester seem to be delayed or cancelled. What are the projected timescales for substantive provision of third-generation SAF? Is consideration being given to roll out this technology beyond aviation?

The Bill helps us play our part in global well-being in every sense. The question with which I come to this House is—as I mentioned earlier—not so much how we make Britain great again, but rather how we make Britain kind again. Such kindness and responsibility are what leads to greatness in a manner which actually lasts and embraces all. In this, this Bill matters. Our infrastructure must line up with our fundamental identity and core vocation if we are to thrive. The Bill represents one structural step, but it is a step in the right direction and I support it.